The NASA Galileo mission’s main objective was to study Jupiter, its moons and it magnetosphere. It planned to accomplish this via two spacecraft, an atmospheric orbiter and a probe that would be released from the orbiter upon arrival. Launched on October 18, 1989 from Cape Canaveral, the spacecraft pair reached Jupiter in December 1995. During its journey to Jupiter it was the first mission to complete a close asteroid flyby - on asteroid Gaspra – and to discover the satellite of an asteroid – Ida’s satellite Dactyl – as well as make important observations about the moon. Since reaching Jupiter the Galileo mission has been a huge success, with the Galileo Orbiter even having made an extended tour – the Galileo Europe Mission (GEM) – for fourteen extra orbits.

SCIENTIFIC GOALS

The Galileo Orbiter and Probe had individual scientific goals. The Probe would be sent straight into Jupiter’s atmosphere to reach these goals whereas the Orbiter would make numerous orb...